Clean Air News

Raleigh—The Bush EPA this evening announced a flawed new national air quality standard for ozone “smog” and called for sweeping changes to the Clean Air Act that threaten to fundamentally weaken one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, according to Environment North Carolina.

“Ozone can harm even the healthiest lungs, but today’s decision will leave many Americas at risk of asthma attacks and other health problems from breathing dirty air,” said Elizabeth Ouzts. 

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), a group of expert outside scientists who advise the EPA Administrator on air quality standards, unanimously recommended that EPA issue an ozone standard no greater than 0.070 parts per million (ppm), but EPA Administrator Johnson this evening announced a new standard of 0.075 ppm.  No previous administration has ever rejected the CASAC’s scientific advice.  The Bush EPA also ignored the CASAC’s advice last year in setting a new standard for fine particle “soot” pollution.

The number of high ozone days in North Carolina has improved in recent years, thanks in part to the state’s Clean Smokestacks law imposing stricter regulations on coal-fired power plants.  A recent Environment North Carolina report, however, estimated that air pollution still causes 1500 emergency room visits for childhood asthma, triggers 100,000 asthma attacks and results in 300,000 missed school days each year.

In addition, under the guise of “modernizing” the Clean Air Act, the EPA Administrator called for fundamental changes to the law, including requiring implementation costs to be considered in setting air quality standards and allowing states and local areas to ignore air pollution problems. 

The Clean Air Act requires air quality standards to be set based solely on a pollutant’s impacts on public health, a matter of science - not consideration of the potential costs of implementation of the standard.

“The Bush EPA has been doing industry’s bidding for seven years, but this takes the cake.  These changes would strike at the heart of the Clean Air Act and take us back decades in protecting Americans from air pollution,” said Ouzts.

Ozone is a powerful pollutant that can burn our lungs and airways, causing health effects ranging from coughing and wheezing to asthma attacks and even premature death.  Children, senior citizens, and people with lung disease are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of ozone. 

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA must set air quality standards at levels that protect public health, including sensitive populations, with an adequate margin of safety. 

Many industries have been lobbying furiously in recent weeks for a weak ozone standard and have long sought major changes to the Clean Air Act.